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Mike Winckler doesn't ask for much from US West, his Internet service provider. He would like to get online on his first try and have quick, reliable access to his e-mail. Oh, one more thing--he wants unlimited access for a reasonable price.

US West, however, hasn't quite met those modest expectations. "I try to log on and don't get an answer," explains the exasperated computer programmer from Omaha, Nebraska, who depends on the ISP for work and recreation. And there's the maddening problem of occasionally being unable to retrieve his e-mail.

But as with many dissatisfied ISP users, the hassle of registering with another provider and informing friends and colleagues of the new e-mail address keeps him from changing providers. "Eventually, I'll switch," says Winckler.

Now couldn't be a better time.

A Wild and Woolly Market

Today's bustling market of some 4500 ISPs--a bit larger than last year's--has one undisputed king: America Online, with its 14 million subscribers. No other ISP comes close to AOL's 13 percent market share worldwide, according to the market research firm DataQuest--but not for lack of trying.

Large national ISPs, local phone companies, and cable operators are consolidating to form global Goliaths--witness last year's merger of MCI and WorldCom, or the pending union of AT&T and TCI. Regional independent providers like Rocky Mountain Internet and CyberGate are gobbling up little ISPs in the quest to become nationals. And regional Baby Bells, hoping to leverage their brand recognition and telecommunications expertise, have quickly emerged as dominant players, particularly in the business market. Meanwhile, local ISPs keep springing up everywhere, providing users with a homespun touch. In fact, nearly half the respondents to our ISP satisfaction survey access the Internet through a local provider (see "Local ISPs: Living on Top of the World").

This market competition may be short-lived, however. Experts forecast rapid consolidation as cable and other broadband technologies take hold, squeezing out ISPs that can't provide new types of service or cut deals with cable companies. "We expect the market to shrink to well below 1000 providers over the next five years," says Zia Daniell, an analyst at Jupiter Communications' Bandwidth and Access Strategies Group.

You're in the Driver's Seat

But for now, consumers and businesses have the luxury of a buyer's market. So if you're running into busy signals, long waits for technical support, or other snags, don't just sit there--start looking for another provider (see "Finding an ISP That Works for You").

"Consumers have a huge number of options to choose from," says Daniell. "ISPs are looking to differentiate themselves, and they're just beginning to explore all the options they can offer."

To help you find the best ISP, we rank 20 competitors. In addition to evaluating the 10 leading national ISPs, as we have in the past, we've added 10 up-and-coming regional providers--including five Baby Bells--because of their growing role in the market. In selecting regional ISPs for our review, we divided the United States into five regions (Midwest, Northeast, Rocky Mountain, South, and West) and chose two major providers in each area. (Erols, one of the regionals, took the name of its parent company, RCN, during the course of our review.)

We evaluated the 20 ISPs from almost every angle. To gauge speed and reliability, we contracted with Inverse Network Technology of Sunnyvale, California, a leader in ISP performance testing. In conjunction with World Research of San Jose, California, we surveyed nearly 8000 PC World subscribers to assess their satisfaction with our 20 target ISPs as well as their competitors (for detailed results, see "ISP Support Satisfaction Results"). We signed up with each ISP to test the installation and start-up process (except with US West, which provides Internet service only to its local phone customers), and we researched each ISP's features and options, including business-oriented offerings (for details, see "Keeping Score: Rating the ISPs").

Correction: We gave CyberGate, an ISP in Florida, a "poor" score for installation because the company told us it does not provide users with software. In fact, it does. As a result of our tests, CyberGate now gets a "fair" installation score and moves from the seventeenth to the fourteenth spot on our ranking chart. The chart was modified to correct this error on March 18, 1999. --Editors